Chapter 36: 35: Voting
Chapter 36: Chapter 35: Voting
Yesterday, when Grandma Narda brought the black iron box, Karl felt an extremely special sense of danger coming from it, and it was also filled with a deadly lure.
But he soon discovered something; it was a fragment of some powerful mysterious rare artifact, not the core part imbued with Spiritual Power.
Not edible.
If all the parts and the core could be collected, one would obtain an artifact even more powerful than the transparent little bottle could compare with.
As the cavalry drew increasingly closer, Karl once again felt that exceptionally special sense of danger.
He suddenly realized that the cavalry commander was also carrying a fragment, perhaps the very reason everyone had been relentlessly chased all this time.
Karl used his will to transform the white light into a weapon and hurled it at the numerous enemies before him, with the Rhea baron commander occupying fully half of the white light.
The endless white light flashed incessantly in the sky, like swords descending onto the snowy field, landing on the bodies of half the enemy soldiers.
Irene and the few others who could witness this scene were involuntarily excited deep in their hearts.
They sensed something was about to happen, the great power of the Lord of the Lost was about to reveal itself to the world!
Baron Bourette suddenly became aware of an extremely intense sense of danger!
He didn’t understand what was happening, thinking it was a might enemy from another country attacking, and subconsciously went on alert.
The next moment, Baron Bourette suddenly found that the wall of fire was no longer contracting according to his thoughts. Instead, without warning, it gradually flew into the sky.
Everyone was stunned, hardly able to comprehend the miraculous event they were witnessing. The massive fireball incinerated the surrounding snowflakes in the sky, boasting even more heat than the wall of fire before, as if the fierce sun hung high in the sky!
“How is this possible!”
Baron Bourette couldn’t believe it, staring blankly into the sky; even though he could feel the heat of the flames around him, there was still a chill to the bone.
“Scatter!”
In the last moment, he could only bellow hysterically.
The enormous flames suddenly plummeted down, like the giant fist of a Sun God of destruction, and in an instant, swallowed up Baron Bourette and many cavalrymen together, even the snow on the ground was completely annihilated.
“Boom!”
The explosion shocked everyone, and then they saw a scene of dreadful devastation. At the very center, Baron Bourette was instantly charred, and even his noble ancient fire-type magic beast bloodline couldn’t give him a chance to survive.
The violent flames did not devour all the cavalrymen, and Karl, having expended almost every bit of his Spiritual Power, had only managed to mark half of the enemies.
A peculiar thing was that those not marked by the white light remained completely unharmed despite being close to the explosion. It was as if they were unbelievably lucky, or as if it was fated to be so!
“Retreat, retreat quickly! Leave this place!”
The remaining cavalry were in utter shock, their hearts almost completely filled with fear, believing that an “Monarch” level power from Cyart had suddenly arrived; their will to fight was utterly gone.
Without the enhancement of a magic array, ordinary soldiers, no matter how numerous, are hard-pressed to contend with a Level 3 “Monarch” level top exponent – that was common knowledge among all nations’ militaries.
When there is no “Monarch” level top exponent in the army, facing an enemy’s “Monarch” level Extraordinary Exponent, soldiers could decide to retreat based on judgment without any punishment from the higher-ups.
It’s an unwritten rule supported by all nations that helps preserve the overall strength.
If the two knights who could have taken over the command were still there, the terrified cavalry might have looked for an opportunity to regroup and return. However, both knights had already been lured away by Lucius.
Karl, watching the remaining cavalry retreat into the distance, felt a very familiar sense of dizziness, although his soul’s overall capacity wasn’t affected, his accumulated Spiritual Power was completely spent.
He last conveyed his will, coldly demanding Irene to retrieve the fragment carried by the cavalry commander, then fell into a brief slumber.
The people of Nasir stood dumbfounded at the scene, witnessing a miraculous event from the brink of death and hopelessness, their emotions tumultuously complex – a mixture of incredible stupor, confusion, and joy intertwined.
“Great Lord of the Lost, I am wholeheartedly grateful for Your merciful salvation and will fulfill and enact Your will.”
The girl’s black hair was now half pure white, but her eyes remained as bright as ever.
She slowly got up and went into the wreckage to dig out a container that had not been destroyed by the explosion; that was what the Lord of the Lost needed.
Irene desperately wanted to tell the world, “Look, that is the miracle triggered by the great Lord of the Lost!”
The gods had decayed and declined long ago; only the great Lord of the Lost could intervene in the various calamities and hardships of the world, rescuing us from fire and water.
However, she could only endure in silence without speaking out, as “keeping secrets” was one of the mottos of the Fischer family, and another was “caution”.
From the very beginning, the Fischer family had set a rule that they would only carry out missionary work on someone if three family members agreed.
“We’re alive!”
“A miracle, it was just a miracle! We were saved by the gods!”
“Really, it was, it was…”
Grandma Narda almost shouted out, “The lost Lord of Dawn has bestowed a miracle,” but seeing Irene’s calm yet icy warning gaze, she immediately changed her claim and continued to speak to the others.
“It’s definitely a miracle from the Lord of Salvation! Our country has signed a treaty with those dog-like Rhea people, and it was under the witness of the Salvation Church! Since the Rhea people have breached the treaty, the God of Salvation naturally couldn’t stand by!”
Everyone was half knowledgeable about mysteries and religion, and miracles, a rare sight, were not understood in principle by many in the entire country, so most of them believed Grandma Narda’s words in the heat of the moment.
Irene took a deep breath and said, “Let’s keep moving forward. There are still many pursuers behind us; we must leave quickly.”
An invisible close connection made her vaguely feel that the Lord of the Lost seemed to have fallen into slumber. Any further delay and they would all truly be doomed.
“Wait!”
Byrne suddenly shouted out, his eyes red, his emotions clearly very unstable.
“My father hasn’t come back yet. He just stopped some of the pursuers, he will be back soon… He might need our rescue.”
“Byrne, we had already agreed that if we get separated inadvertently, we’ll regroup in a safe place.”
Irene’s tone became incredibly soft, full of compassion, yet leaving no room for doubt.
“Even if we go back, we would only hold him back, and the miracle won’t happen a second time. We must save ourselves.”
Byrne clenched his teeth tightly, finding it difficult to make such a painful choice: “But we can’t just abandon him, he did it for us.”
The people who had survived the ordeal exchanged glances; even though they all wanted to flee quickly, they could not voice such treacherous and deserting words, not daring to be the first to speak out.
“Many people fell behind during the escape, but we never looked back, did we? Madam Irene, Mr. Byrne, let’s vote on it.”
Grandma Narda suddenly looked at Byrne calmly, speaking gently:
“We all respect Mr. Lucius, his actions saved everyone, but as a mother, I also know what his deepest wish is in his heart—it is absolutely that you, Byrne, do not go back.”
“Also, you understand he did it not for us, but for you.”
After speaking, her face showed a sorrowful expression; up until that moment, Grandma Narda did not even know whether her three scattered sons were still alive.
If they had all died, Grandma Narda had already decided in the deepest part of her heart that she would choose death.
The vote was completed in less than ten seconds, with a solid seventy-one of the seventy-three survivors raising their hands. Old Ramon hesitated for a long time before looking at his son and raising his hand, leaving only Byrne and Chris not raising theirs.
Chris looked silently at the eyes of everyone around him, with people feeling that he was too young to understand the significance of voting.
Irene calmly stroked her brother’s head and said, “Chris, you’re very brave.”
“But I’m a coward. I just want more members of our family to survive.”
As their gazes met, Byrne sank into deep silence.
He wanted to go back alone to find his father, but instinctively felt fear and dread, and then shame and anger at these emotions, until finally, when he wanted to turn around, the words that Grandma Narda had just spoken echoed in his head.
The one thing that man least wanted was for him to go back.